Can I build my own house? I live in San Diego and the prices are out of control, and I'm getting a little desperate. Maybe if I buy a lot and build the house myself it'd be cheaper? I get a lot of PTO so I could probably show up and do a lot of the framing myself with a little research and planning. Is this a good idea if I'm technically minded? Would a pre-fab/kit home be better? have you ever done anything like this?
tl;dr how can I build my own house?
There are these guys who live in carboard boxes. If you build the house yourself our of carboard boxes it would be cheaper, with a little research and planning.
yeah but I wouldn't be able to convince my wife to live in a box
Get a van. show her some of those vanlife tiktoks to convince her that it's trendy and shick to be gypsie trash
>There are these guys who live in carboard boxes.
we call those Americans
code enforcement will eat your lunch.
there is a code and a regulation for EVERYTHING. they can, and will, accuse you of doing improper work. the quality, safety and effectiveness is not their point. they are bureaucrats collecting taxes, fees and fines and greasing the palms of their peripheral trade workers in their pockets.
multiply this by 1000 since you are in California.
we moved out of the city when we built our hoose. still had to follow some common sense laws, but no moronic ordinances or city codes to deal with. basic common sense and safety was good enough.
I would expect as much from San Diego/California.
How did your build go? Did you diy anything?
Land of the fee
ok chill the frick out kid
its ok to ensure people dnt die in fires in piles of ruble in eathquake country so shut the frick up
CA has standard rules and limits for owner building - just look em up and do it right
its not contest - just meet the fricking rules.
You can set up a cardboard box on a street and they wont touch you.
As soon as you stick your shovel in the dirt theyre going to fine you for not using a union worker
>I'm getting a little desperate
Why not move to another location? Things will only get more crowded and worse overall. Will you die if you don't live where you can't really afford to live? (Ignore morons who imagine everywhere is expensive, this is a board with too many yung dumbasses.)
You picked the worst state to do anything yourself in a city. If you build a home you'll be stuck there until you die. What makes that the smartest possible choice given your situation? What is your life plan presuming you have one?
Do you even WANT to spend the rest of your life in San Diego? America is huge and you can live where you can build most anything you want and own enough acreage not to have neighbors eyeballing every orifice.
I have a sweet job in my field where I'm making and saving a lot of money/getting raises and I'm essentially unfireable. Even so it's not enough for a basic 3*1 here, and maybe never will be. I am applying for other jobs in cheaper locations and if I find one before a house makes sense I would move. In the meantime I'm trying to figure it out, as one does
Live in a trailer on the street? Save up more money more quickly. Check county tax rolls for unpaid property taxes. Choose a region with no building Codes/no Code enforcement. Lots of people are moving to the Ozarks, but that's along a fault line and too low in elevation. Appalachian mountain region has areas that are above 1200 meters. There are also properties with gas wells in the deed, so free energy and heat. Likely to have spring water, also.
Move the frick away from the cities. You want to stay there another 10-15 years, as sub-saharans and gang members flood the area? As you see your public resources wasted?
What's coming culminates in lightning of the gods, the cosmic thunderbolt, and then 1-4 ft/min of water rising up, drowning those SOBs. And the parasitic bureaucratic blue haired freaks with them. Big win. NGMI if you're in the middle of that mess.
So I should give up on building my house here in San Diego?
I've also been thinking about searching the gov website for houses behind on taxes. is there an easy way to do this? or do I have to code up something to look through all addresses to find houses in debt? How much of a discount can I expect from this method?
In San Diego you are not going to find any deals this way, realtor/flippers get ahold of every available repo and fixer property that might be "affordable" long before any one else can; the property is just too valuable to sit that long, and even massively depressed properties in shit areas are practically guaranteed to outperform their tax liability, deferred maintenance and holding costs.
PS if you think buying undeveloped land or a big lot that can be subdivided is a viable plan on a shoestring, think again...permits alone *just to create legally subdivided lots* will cost what an entire house costs in other states, and no, you won't be allowed to live in a trailer while you build something permanent, not even in the east county boonies.
t. lived in San Diego for decades and worked in and around property management and rehabilitation for multiple people who owned residential and inome properties and land holdings.
Yes. You will fail. You have no skil and no knowledge. It will take forever and you will frick up constantly.
... I agree with 1* reply above, and I might agree with 2, because we get so many dogshit stupid redditards on here, but OP doesn't seem like a complete mongaloid {more accurately, sub-saharan, cause mongolians are reasonably intelligent}. He must have an ample amount of caucasoid DNA, because he's planning for the future, and doesn't sound like he has a closet full of Nikes.
If you're not white, OP, it won't work to be where it's 99.5% white (in reality, don't trust stats). I tell well-to-do single blacks who aren't afraid to go overseas, to go to Brazil. They are much more likely to find a decent woman for them down there, and just generally better environs. Browse around on youtube for advice videos.
YMMV in very rural areas of north america. We have a female around here that made some stupid choices when she was younger and has some half-tyrone mongoloids. What a mess.
Am anon who suggested looking in delinquent property tax roles. I 100% agree with the other 2 replies above. I was not thinking of the highly competitive real estate market of San Diego. That other anon with real estate experience can probably walk you through the steps because of their familiarity.
I was talking about much more rural properties that are largely ignored. I'm on central wv, about 60 miles east of Nate Petroski (tiktok/youtube). I think he bought his property listed, with no buildings on it, about 3-4 years ago. You could, up until a few years ago, get reasonably priced houses here, on listings. Anymore now, I would suggest looking at counties closer to the Appalachian peaks, for properties with a pad or old house, repairable/livable. With natural gas and spring water. Then you've got energy, heating and water, with which you can garden, have goats, etc.
I'd get something a little higher altitude if I was buying. I'm sitting on unused farm land, slowly rehabilitating it, despite the owner's wife who acts like she'd rather 'live' in an apartment next to a walmart and buy her food there. We have chickens. Chickens are easy except for predators, get a couple of big dogs.
Land is dogshit clay unless you live down near a waterway, in which case now you're near a potential flood area. Planning on terracing this hillside and creating areas for the water to slow down, penetrate into the ground.
Another place I've heard good things about is rural south dakota. Mayberry by comparison to the gay degenerated cities. I get that San Diego is nice, somewhat. But when SHTF, you're just another resource to be plundered, and unfortunately you are surrounded. 3rd day he was there, sheriff goes to this couples' house and is there for meet n greet, asks him about going hunting. He says he has a felony from back, and the response is 'Well you have to have a gun. And I'm the law enforcement here.' Neighbors stop by, instead of tell lie vision.
Admittly I just overflew the thread, but
>San Diego
>I have a sweet job in my field where I'm making and saving a lot of money/getting raises and I'm essentially unfireable. Even so it's not enough for a basic 3*1 here, and maybe never will be.
Do you even have the means to acquire land that isn't bumfrick anywhere to begin with?
Everything code has been reiterated a few times already. I just wanna add if you get to things like renting a crane, make a spreadsheet and thoroughly think about how much time could be saved with additional man power.
Else is the way to go. If nerdy tech bros can still pull it, level headed workers should do as well.
Don't direct city slickers to move to my Ozarks
I'll sic the Bald Knobbers on you all
What do you do? I’m also in the same area in a trade making Kim wage essentially would be more fun to not have a teenager machinist job
>I'm making and saving a lot of money
too many idiots don't understand cost of living
you're not "making a lot of money" if you have to fricking turn around and spend it all on living expenses
You say that but my wife and I saved like $60k last year. Not a lot for some people but a lot for us.
>I'm making a lot of money (can barely afford rent)
Sunk cost fallacy hits calis and new yawkers hard.
You're not making shit.
I was pulling 100k in Los Angeles and was treading water. I make 100k in Texas now and am finally comfy.
You need to move .
Doing what?
if you build a new home in California it has to have a lot of gay shit like solar panels...thats why they arent building anymore. pretty sure its all bullshit to keep property values up due to scarcity
Generally not in San Diego, permitting, zoning, hoas and shit.
They kinda want you to buybthatventrynlevel 1.1 millon dollar home
if you want to live in San Diego, you probably are not going to be able to afford San Diego without getting a spouse. Building your own house in California is literally a nightmare and the State continues to work to frustrate homebuilders in urban areas.
A few things I can think about that will frick you over for a self-build in California are (and which they don't tell you unless you look at code):
You need an Electrician to do both main work for the utility and most of your panel installs. Not hard, but then you also need to consider its going to be several thousand dollars you need to pay in labor.
You cannot pour foundations. You need to pay someone to do that. Foundations in San Diego are probably going to run 60K+ for a 1600 square foot house.
You cannot self-install your required residential fire sprinklers. You have to have a licensed installer/contractor do that. That will be somewhere in the ball park of 12k.
You cannot self-install water heaters. You need to pay someone to do that, additionally if you have gas hookups you need to pay for all of that piping to be done by a licensed contractor. Even if you go gasless (Heat pump), you probably would need to get HVAC and ducting done by a contractor as that trade is pretty aggressive about owner installs (No supply house access for one). I'll let you go look at the costs.
DIY solar is a possibility but you need to consider that it is municipality and utility dependent on what you can get away with.
Some of these things will need stamped plans for a house as San Diego likely wants to ensure the work is up to "spec" (aka going to go to contractors), I'd anticipate paying an architectural/engineering firm which handles SFH at least 10k.
Water/Sewer is harder. That's going to require either Septic engineering (Which is a Federal Requirement so no avoiding that), a plumber to hook you into the sewers and water utility, or a well drilling company as California prohibits self-drilled wells. (1/2)
(2/2)
Doing most of your plumbing can be reasonable. Most of the electrical conduit is reasonable plus light fixtures. If you want a pool for that amount of excavation that is a contractor-only situation nowadays due to the excavation situation (Ymmv if you can get a plan stamped). Framing is where you can save quite a bit of money on the house construction game, but framing is not a major cost of the house anyway. Framing could only be something like 10k in labor for a small house depending on how complex the floor plan is. Materials are what will get you screwed over on framing. You can do insulation and sheetrock, that will save you quite a bit of money (I'd ball park around 15-20k) Exterior work is another big place to save on labor. Finishes like flooring and cabinetry as wells as closets. Interior doors (Not exterior doors and windows though, for whatever reason you can run into trouble getting those done on your own. Not impossible though and by that stage you don't have inspectors coming through to make your life miserable). You can pour your own driveway (Though if you had foundation done, I'd have the same contractor either pour driveway or if you don't want that you can do pavers).
Even with a self-build you still are going to probably be looking at roughly 92k in labor, you might save about 50-60k in labor. Materials are going to be all over the place but at roughly 150 a sq foot if you make some choices with the eye on making upgrades in the future on a 1600 sq foot house would be 240k. Land might be a bigger cost but I can see land at roughly 120-130K depending (Utility hookups if you need a pole or a main extended might kill you). Permitting will be another 20-30k to the City/County. So about 500k to build a house depending on where you can site the house. You can save some money but be prepared to be pretty tired if you have to do this work yourself. Your entire free time and hours will be spent working and you need to have a solid plan.
Thank you very much for your detailed post with things broken down. It really helps to know what can be diy'd and what cannot and how much saving can really be had.
knowing framing is actually cheaper is good because that is the part I was dreading dying because I was worried about getting crushed by some beams.
500k for a house here is not so bad considering anything with three bedrooms in a decent neighborhood is going for like a million, so I wouldn't mind being tired for 50% off.
though financing is probably an issue. I hear banks won't finance a build, and I only have like 100k in the bank
banks will finance builds, someone is doing it looking at a map of San Diego county out towards Ramona. Your problem is that you probably don't have the experience to write the plan to get the builders loans. You can usually use your land as part collateral, but then you need to have a solid plan to get the land built out with which contractors are going to do what. So you need to have the architecture, engineering, utility sign offs, etc. (Not necessarily your sub contractors but the people to get the land ready to build). Writing out the plan is what is important to the bank for them to give you a construction as the finished product should be valuable enough to justify the risk to the bank..
Traffic studies, environmental impacts, impact to the master plans, etc. It is seen as a way to extort money from banks indirectly and keep government engineers available. The actual work of some of these studies can range from very in-depth explanations of what will happen to a ctrl+v of a previous study. It is all over the place.
>I live in San Diego
>Can I build my own house?
>I'm getting a little desperate
>prices are out of control
move you fricking moron lol
>how can I build my own house?
Here is a fun fact: One guy bought land to put a 1800 sq ft manufactured home on. The city said his Building Permit was $23,000. This was in California.
I would use a manufactured home. do you have any you recommend?
>Building Permit was $23,000
That's just extortion.
What was the bill of materials, for this, permit?
>I live in San Diego
>the prices are out of control
welcome to the new world. our lonely town turned OC real quick. Even burritos prices went up. friend bought a canyon land parcel in golden hills. we paid a design engineering company to make it work. sdgov permits love people spending money these days. a few hurdles later (mexi laborers & covid) he has a modern 1200sq ft "small home" bungalow style built into the hill with covered terrace parking up top in golden hills. I sold him the property. working on a parcel purchase in tecolote canyon which was sold for a steal putting a stacked container home built into the hill. guy is a young dude with limited budget but his welding skills and contractor friends with free bobcats, ditchwitches and skips seem to be pulling the costs down substantially. our laborers have to travel pretty far so it all plays into the cost. Look at random ass properties in sd. I know from owning there that the vultures and flippers are out there in full force but there are alternatives. Look at parcels and foreclosures. Ive make my living off of sd properties and really if youre looking now youre too late, unless you are willing to self build or find parcel properties
Anybody with decent skills can build a house. The second one you build will be way better, and the third one will be close to perfect if each time you just correct mistakes without adding complexity or new features.
>Anybody with decent skills can build a house.
Not true. Maybe a shack.
i think electric is only hard part (i don't know electric)
electric is easy + to + and - to -
The cost of the land and cost of building the house are often remarkably close to how much a comparable house would sell for in that area. Fixing up a shitter is probably cheapest option.
not in california and most of the west coast. too much premium on used houses.
San Diego here. I'm in the same boat. Want to just buy a plot, get some Mexican labor and build some cheap adu to start charging rent to make other shit we would need like walkways, lawn, etc
gee if only we could fix the housing issue!
Rent free
>just move to kansas moron you won't have a nice day from boredom and isolation and shit weather
My dad built the house I grew up in, much bigger than he would have been able to afford. My dad is a superhuman beast who few mortals come close to in industriousness. some of the work you are not gonna be able to do yourself / some of it isn't cost-effective to do yourself.
I'm a big fan of Just Move. nice starter homes in the midwest in good neighborhoods for 100k
Any sense in buying cheap land and dropping one of these on it to ride out until the market improves?
>until the market improves?
bwahahahah
its not brain surgery if you have good plans and know how to follow them
if you are a professional in all the steps and have all the right tools you can build a complete 600 sqf house in like 500 hours if there is a foundation to put it on and you have the logistic that gets you right material at right time.
But with no experience it will probably take you 5000 hours if you have plans.
>just buy some land in San Diego
Depend what you call a house.
You can put "something" on your land, but build require a lot of useless stuff.
See if you can build a a-frame cabin and claim it's a mobile house.
Another alternative is to build a trailer.
>can I build my own house?
easy
based Wayne
Surprised he can eat like that with his rotten mush mouth teeth
>you don't have a house you have a shack.
Short answer no
Long answer noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
So let me get this straight the alpha chads living in the street can build anything they want
But your dumbass is going to ask the government permission why? Because it’s illegal? Or because you’re a beta b***h?
Grab some pallets get building. Code enforcement can talk to the ar-15
Biden wants to make this a third world country fricking live by third world rules
>Biden wants to make this a third world country
No, the Republicans are the ones who are pro-poverty and anti-democracy.
>https://www.reddit.com/
Building mine with my father in law, bought an old burned down wreck for 10k and rebuilding it together, spend less than 5k in materials so far to get it to this stage but he has the expertise and i am the helper.
So is it doable? Of course, and you can always ask for guidance.
Hey anon, I also live in San Diego. The price of the houses being so high here is related to the price of land. Unfortunately, you're going to have to go far to get cheap land anyways, at which point the price of houses is also going to go down. You aren't going to see significant savings buying an empty lot in like North Park, and you aren't going to find empty lots in any of the post-1970s planned communities that start north of the 8. Sorry!